burned hearts
by Beautiful Phantom
Summary: Not even death will keep her away from him. [Adrian x Kagome] Beware of dark contents within, may not be your cup of tea. [Completed!] [NOT AN UPDATE, it's an edit. it's FFN being weird.]
1. 0: to love, cherish, and worship

**author's note** : this series is originally from my tumblr archive, so pardon awkward typos and strange pacing. I did polish it up best I could, to fit better to the story. previously this installment wasn't a part of burned hearts saga, but it did fit well as an introduction so why not? But, this series is p much finished so I'll be posting every other day until I reaches the end.

get ready for the crazy ride.

also, the **cover** is by the wonderful artist named **fenrae-l**. def recommend throwing her some money sometimes.

 **w** **arnings** : explicit sexual themes/scenes and some bloodplay (because vampire). kiddies, get out, you're not invited.

 **Prologue** :  
to love, cherish, and worship

" _Welcome one and all, and witness Adrian and Kagome as they pledge their dedication to walk the night together."_

Sharp nails scratched red lines over her naked thigh, shredding the irritating layers of laces. Pulses of his love's heart thudded loudly into his ear, as his teeth danced over it. Her moans were tantalizing.

He tore the collar of her dress out of his way, provoking a gasp as the red welt formed on her skin. He hurried to ease the stings, his broad tongue sweeping over the bruise. A groan tumbled from his chest, and his eyes fluttered close at the taste of her skin, "Enticing, my love, as you always are."

Blunt nails dragging down on his back drew a shuddering sigh, what a tease she was. "I could say the same for you, dear _husband_." She murmured into his golden hair, before a delighted giggle breathed into his ear at the last word.

"Don't I like the sound of that…" He thudded his hands onto the dresser he set his wife on and rested his forehead on her bruised shoulder, "Oh, my _Kagome_. You certainly made it all the harder for me to contain myself."

Kagome, still smiling, peered into her new husband's eyes, "Why should you? I have faith in you, Adrian." Tenderly she swept a thumb across his skin, not at all flinching at the eerie and unnatural temperature in his body.

Wood peeled from his fists, and fangs glinted in the dim candlelight, Adrian gave her a wicked smirk—the kind that had Kagome shivering with excitement, "Then may you forgive me for what I will do to you, my love—I don't intend you to leave the bed when the night returns."

"I wouldn't expect otherwise." Kagome lost her sharp breath, as hot knives sank into her shoulder—a sensation she wasn't unfamiliar with. A knee rose from the start, and she whimpered a moan, when a claw returned to her sensitive thigh he earlier drew five trails of blood from. "Ad-Adrian!"

Everything tingled so loud it took all of her effort to cling to her husband, his teeth deep into her flesh. Blood flowed freely from his hungry mouth, staining her wedding dress. Whatever venom that crept from Adrian's fangs had her wheezing and her thighs tingling with uncomfortable heat.

Her faith kept strong—she knew her husband wouldn't dare to change her. He was simply taking a little piece of her, in exchange for his marks and his strength to remain strong throughout the night under his unforgiving attention.

Trust was essential.

" _Stand now as ye will stand forever…"_

Everything was numb, in the most delightful way possible. Kagome blearily opened her eyes, when she felt a shift from her skin and a blood-warmed tongue followed. She tightened closer to Adrian, unbearable needs were festering from inside her impatient core. She clenched her jaws and scratched her nails against his diamond-hard skin, willing herself to be patient longer—her _husband_ could be quite cruel sometimes.

He was quite fond of setting her on edge, as well leaving himself to be desperate.

Leaving them both to want each other all the more.

A squall fled her lips at the sound of thunderous ripping and surprise stinging from the snapping, dulled from his venom. His claws swept through her heavy skirt and shred them onto the carpeted ground. Her corset and underclothes were the next to follow, leaving her all bare to his eyes save for tongue-smeared stains from his bite. Adrian's eyes dimmed red with his lust of his wife, his hands pulling Kagome's thighs to his hips, "My, my love," he purred at Kagome's shuddering at the hard object pressing against her damp core, "you looked quite appetizing."

"So are you." Her words were strangled out. With dazed eyes Kagome pulled her husband in, her lips flushed against his. His teeth were large and his mouth tasted strange and metallic from drinking from her neck, but she still loved him the same.

Adrian returned his love fiercely, tasting all that his wife was. The nips from his fangs cut into her swollen lips, the rich flavor leading him to grind his tightening trouser harder against Kagome. Frictions were feeding to his lust, his needs to have her. To be inside of her warmth.

But, not yet.

He was still hungry to taste rest of his wife.

Kagome's begging cries made his notions far more difficult than he wanted it to be, but Adrian's wills were nothing less than formidable.

"Be patient, love," Adrian parted from her red lips, clicking his teeth, "there's just one more thing I'd like to do to you."

With a glare, Kagome trembled. She understood. At his loosening hands, she parted her legs wider and her face was heated. It was far from her first time with Adrian, but yet, he found with an odd glee, she was shy still when he asked for a taste. He grinned, his knees dropping to the floor, and saw a pretty petal that glistered before his sight.

What a good and willing wife she was.

" _Will you, Adrian of Tepes, the son of the Dark Count, declare your loyalty and your heart for the rest of eternity, to her, your bride?"_

Flinching at the twin knives pressing against her folds Kagome clenched against the rim of the furniture. She gulped when her husband's large hands wrapped around her hips, his nails picking at her skin pink. Stray thoughts brought Kagome to wonder just how many red marks she'd wear the following morning, if she gets up at all.

Those thoughts vanished as quickly as they came at her sudden gasp—Adrian's tongue flicked at her clit, sore from inattention and unmet needs. Her body was, once again, flooded with indescribably white pleasure. "A-Adrian!" Kagome bit down on her bottom lip, her hands twitching to tangle in his golden mane.

Her throat swelled with muffled cries, her hand firmly clasping over her mouth, as she could feel tongue pushing and rolling against the insides of her aching core. Overstimulating her and teetering her on the edge that Adrian refused to let her fall off from. Her eyes watered as everything were set on fire.

What a cruel man he was.

She felt his amusement before she heard him. Distinctly she thought she heard a sound of fabric sliding against the fabric. But, she still burned, her toes curling.

" _I do."_

Stopping just short before she could find release, Adrian separated himself from his wife's tart taste and flickered out his tongue to taste the remaining flavor on his lips. He chuckled at Kagome's hissing curse, "Patience, love, have patience." A long string pulled into his hold, loosening his unforgiving trouser. The leather fabric gave away to his unsustainable member, "I am as eager as you are."

"A-Adrian…" Kagome bit down on her palm, when his hand darted to glide over her swollen jewel—teasing it almost mercifully. Clawing into the skin of Adrian's wrist as if to keep it there she caught the glimpse of his wanton, straining for her. She whimpered.

Adrian grabbed her chin, his sun-eyes were now dark, and breathed, the air was spicy of lust, "Let's do this proper, love." He pulled her into a deep kiss, his teeth drawing more tiny slices into her lips.

Her lungs running on empty from his stealing her air, Kagome released her grasp from his cruel hand and wrapped her arms around his head. She pulled herself closer, desperate to feel the radiating heat from Adrian's lust.

Kagome missed the hand that was painfully teasing her to the edge, feeling nothing but void there. Before she could whine large arms developed her small body and wrapped her tight against Adrian's now naked chest. She was sure he could feel the pounding heart under her heavy breasts and the brushes of hardened pink pebbles rubbing against his skin. He brushed his lips against her bruised neck and peppered kisses. Kagome giggled softly at her husband's affection, briefly distracted from her latest angst, before she stopped a moan at the solid flesh pressing in between her rear.

Next thing she knew, the softness of feather mattress folding against her back. The bed creaked at Adrian's sudden movement. Sharpness danced over her swollen lips again, "My love, are you ready?" Hardness poked at the entrance, rubbing against the fluids that flowed freely from her eagerness and Adrian's cruel teases.

" _Will you, Kagome of the wanderers, the_ _holy_ _guardian of a curse, declare your loyalty and your heart for the rest of eternity, to him, your groom?"_

Kagome managed to suppress her upset pout, "What do you think?" She scratched against Adrian's broad back, her impatience making her body to quake.

"As ready as I am." He chuckled against her lips, before he took it, his tongue danced with hers. With a shift of his hips and drifting a hand from her back to her wiggling hip and gripped it, he was developed wholly in her. Through her lips Adrian shuddered at her cry.

Each and every sound his beautiful love made only served him to want to never see her out of his bed again.

And by the lord was she _tight_ , her wet sheath pulsing over his hard flesh.

Starting with a slow rhythm, he separated himself from Kagome's lips, so to allow her to breathe. Satisfied with her daze Adrian hadn't forgotten rest of her flesh, parting his embrace to compress a shifting breast in his hand. He flickered and rolled his thumb over her sensitive pink pebble and watched her contorted expression.

His throat went dry at the sweltering sight in front of him, Adrian's breath hitched when Kagome's heat tightened over all of his sensitive spots. Unconsciously he sped up and strengthened his thrusts. Kagome strained out a long moan, craning her head back against the pillow. Her arms fell backward, thudding against the downy object.

The white pleasure was building, her eyes nearly blinded with beading sweat and the attention her husband was inflicting on her. His cock rubbed against that spot that had her toes hurting from pressing so hard against her soles, had her lungs seemingly very short on air and her heart beating like a hummingbird's wings.

The prickling sensation from Adrian's fangs across her rising breasts hadn't helped. At every sweep of his tongue tasting the sheen layer of her sweat, she quivered and clenched deep into the pillow. Kagome hadn't noticed that he moved.

Her hips were turned with a push of large hands, a leg rising to perch on Adrian's shoulder, and her eyes shot wide at the new change in the stimulation. She couldn't cry out, her lungs still burning for air, and her jaws dropped open at the explosion that boomed throughout her tired body.

Kagome could only manage a breathless squeal, as waves of heat draped over her frame and washed over her.

" _I do."_

Adrian wasn't done, and he was merciless. At the slacking of her body, he pulled a hand and circled the clitoris. Kagome's nails tore apart the fabric of the pillow and muffled her crying at his hastening, ruthless thrusting. The groans Adrian was straining out, vibrating throughout her leg, had her clenching and readying herself all over again.

He was so close to snapping into halves, to empty himself into his love–his mind filled of nothing but Kagome. Adrian shivered, the soft and tart smell of her brought him nothing but joy and his cold heart burning with an unbelievable amount of possessiveness, lust, and love. Such thoughts brought him to clench onto her hip and leg, drawing more lines of dewing red. These thoughts led him to pepper kisses onto her calf.

To want to love her.

His testicles tightened and Adrian fluttered close his eyes, the coils of lava rippling throughout his loin. He dropped aside Kagome's leg and draped himself over her, completely closing himself into her. His fangs sank into the same bruised spot of her shoulders, grasping her deep and immobilized her. His venom had Kagome snapping her eyes wide open and grabbed onto his back, her nails clawing into his skin. She squealed at another sudden explosion of her climax at his action.

Immediately after Adrian stiffened and slamming a claw deep into the mattress under them. His own blinding release had him groaning loud, his spent racing throughout from his body and into her. Breathing deep from his nose Adrian realized the favor of blood was sating desert of his throat and parted himself from his wife's well used shoulder, his mouth bloody.

Feeling empty he slacked himself over Kagome's still form, save for her rapidly rising chest, minding his weight to avoid crashing her. Such a small thing she was. Adrian rested his forehead on the ruined pillow next to her head, ignoring her whimper to depart his body.

Adrian wasn't done—he promised her she wouldn't leave his bed, so he kept himself inside of her warm sheath.

"Are you well, love?" Adrian hummed, finally sweeping clean of his lips from Kagome's blood.

Kagome turned her head to stare at her husband, too tired to even bother glaring, and huffed, "You're insatiable." A sharp moan fled afterward, when a shift of her hips startled a sensitive spot inside of her.

His chest rumbled with laughter, Adrian rose his head to look straight into her stormy eyes, "Only for you, love, only for you."

Quiet for several seconds Kagome quirked a small smile, "I should've known better, my dear husband. This is our first night of being wedded. Of course, you'd be too eager." Mustering strength revived from Adrian's bite she rose her arms and loosely wrapped them around his neck. She sighed, her eyes warm, "…I love you."

Adrian closed in on her well-loved lips, "I you, love, I you." He palmed her hips and chuckled at her groan at the shift of his position. "Ready to renew the night?"

" _And I shall be yours for all eternity."_

They would never be apart.

* * *

edited as of 12.20.17, to the best of my ability


	2. 1: until death do us part

**author's note** : so here's where weird pacing comes in-time skips that is. still i hope ya'll like alukag baby, Gabriel, even if his appearances are largely short. anyway, excuse heavily borrowed stuffs from the cv show. enjoy!

also, i'm seeing to get the previous chapter and this one to be edited soon. i know i have shitton issues in my grammars, in spite of my efforts. please be patient with me, thank you. in the meantime, **_please review if you can!_**

 **w** **arnings** : character deaths, implied deaths

 **1** :  
until death do us part

" _Go! Do what your father was teaching you!"_

" _Mother! Grandmother!"_

" _ **Go**_ _!"_

A little white flash barely illuminated the cramped cabin they took up in. With his now small size, he slipped through a tiny opening of the opened window, cries drying his lungs. Dusty dirt floated from his far landing on all fours. Losing battles with his sobbing in form of little heart-curling whining he glanced back for his mother and grandmother, and saw glow of fire beyond the cabin.

He heard them long before he saw their lights. These voices sounded like something straight from the hell itself, riddled with unneeded rage. The very moment he saw his mother's white face, it was the beginning of his nightmare.

"Witches, come out!" They roared.

" _Gabriel, go!"_ hissed his mother through the wooden wall.

A small paw kicked at a pebble, as he crawled backward, "No…no, mother!"

" _Please, child…go find your father and grandfather."_ Pleaded his grandmother.

His ears pinned down. _Of course,_ his father and grandfather are strong and mighty—They can save his mother and grandmother and punish the evil! "I'll be back!" Gabriel cried in midst of the villagers' roars, kicking up his white legs.

Dashing into the forest he knew nothing of the fate that would befall on his mother and grandmother. It took all of his little strength to run as fast as he could, before he bellowed the loudest howl he could muster.

He was calling for his father.

His father hadn't gone that long, intending to bring back some hunts to their shared home in the forest. Preys had been dwindling, perhaps because of Gabriel's growing appetite. His father hadn't care though—it was just the part of growing up and coming in his fangs, as his grandfather put it, and simply tracked deeper in nature.

It was a set routine the family had for over 20 years, ever since his father was born to his grandparents. They never expected that the townspeople would have turned against his grandmother for all the services she did for them, pulling his innocent mother into the frays.

Gabriel always did wonder why his mother was wary of visiting that town.

He understood now—he saw what his mother saw. Evil in these men's eyes. Such evilness that struck his core cold and his heart afraid. Prior, his grandmother remained optimistic, waving away her daughter-in-law's concerns. After all, they have two powerful men to protect them and their wits to keep them out of troubles.

His mother knew better, Gabriel realized, as she had been a traveling foreigner for a good decade (since _youth_ , even!). She knew humankind better than anyone. A whimper strangled from his battered throat, when his howl hadn't been returned.

He wished he hadn't doubted his mother's concerns, borrowing arrogant pride from his grandsire. Perhaps then they would never face these ugly men. He would never have to see such a sight in these eyes at all. His mother wouldn't have to sacrifice herself for her child.

There was no way his mother, as powerful as she was, could stand against a large horde of corrupted men.

His body weakening from his transformation Gabriel collapsed against the dry patch of grass and did the only thing he could think to do. He cried. He cried for the fates of his mother and grandmother. He had no idea how long he had been screaming for his father.

When blackness began to spot his vision he heard his own name. He found himself being rolled into a familiar pair of strong arms, "Gabriel!? How, how long had you been in this form? Where is your mother?"

Gabriel whimpered, his voice nearly empty, but he mustered enough strength to meet his father's golden eyes—the exact shade of his own, "Mo-mother…townpeople. Fire." He shivered, at the realization of his own failure, "Told me to find you."

He missed his father's face—his pale skin whiter than it ever had been. Gabriel remembered nothing else.

Warmness stung his skin—his mother's magic gifted him more degrees of protection against the sun his sires were most sensitive to. Gabriel didn't bother waking to it, his now-humanoid body curling in tighter. He noted the soft fragrances of wildflowers being too close for comfort, but even that he ignored. Dewed blades of grass was a dream on his creaky body.

He wasn't sure how long he had been in the same spot, but he hadn't wanted to move. That nightmare he had was real, he knew this, and he didn't want to wake up to it. His heart hurts.

Distinctly he thought he heard something heavy thudding. Gravels being crunched under hurrying steps. Large hands developed his small shoulders—cold hands he was familiar with, and shook his body awake. Awake into the world he didn't want. "Gabriel!?"

He peeled open his eyes and saw his grandfather's worried expression. It wasn't an expression he saw before, in his proud and noble grandsire. Gabriel broke out into trembles under his grandfather's gazes.

His grandfather glanced at the spot he was previously in, a random spot just out of sight from the dirt road lined with bushes and rickety fences. As if Gabriel wasn't meant to be seen, but sensed. And sensed his grandfather did. "Why are you in there, boy?"

Gabriel shook hard, his face scrunching. He knew his grandfather found tears to be quite slightly, but Gabriel couldn't keep them all in. He sobbed, "Mother…! Grandmother…" Gabriel hastily rubbed away his tears, but he couldn't fight to keep his practiced composure.

Just like his father, he paled paler than even his own skin. Gabriel didn't see his face—hadn't wanted to. Without prompting he slammed his little body against his grandfather's stomach and clung to his shirt. To blind himself from the beautiful world that promised a life without his dear mother.

His grandfather couldn't produce any word, not even that of any comfort. He did wonder about the strange suppressing smell of burning charcoal, but passed it off as his wife's cooking. Now fear started to set in.

Swinging Gabriel's slacked body into his arms his grandfather bolted into a blur, toward their family home he and his grandmother built together.

He thought he heard an old woman, but so deep in his fear, Gabriel hadn't wanted to listen to what she told his grandfather.

The overwhelming smell of burning woods stung even his lungs inside.

Gabriel cried when his grandfather bellowed his utter rage.

His utter _denial_.

"Come, boy!" His grandfather snarled, his breaking heart was loud in his voice, "We must see to your father!"

There was deafening crackles of fire roaring and whipping around his frame, its heat nearly bruising his skin. Gabriel curled into his grandfather's arms tighter, shuddering at his wrath.

Immediately he clawed into his grandfather's body, screeching when the smell of blood burned his nose, his brain _burned_ with disgusts and _hunger._ Gabriel felt his grandfather's hand clawing into his little shoulder, in turn, to keep him contained. To keep his bloodlust under control.

Gabriel's breaths were short.

His eyes started to water though, when he caught the sweet scent of his mother, "Mo—!?"He turned, to look, his heart sighing with hope.

It was dashed when his grandfather slammed his large hand onto his head, burying his face into his grandfather's jacket, "Don't, boy, you do not want to look."

There was the smell of burning flesh too.

Gabriel shook, sobbing all the once more, "No-o… _mother_."

With a chaste kiss on his forehead, his grandfather pressed into a sensitive spot in the back of his neck, "You should sleep, boy."

Everything went black, and with it vanished the foul smell of absolutely everything.

* * *

Of all the centuries he lived, he never imagined the absolute grief he'd experienced.

Lisa. Oh, _Lisa_.

His cold, dead heart turned, and fire of anger followed.

But, nothing ignited inferno like the sight of his grieving son in the middle of bloody calamity, his head buried into the half-burnt body of his most beloved. His son's wife, who was once the traveler searching for a way to end the curse of a pink bauble borne from hatred; the very one even the most fearsome Dracula considered as his most dearest daughter, Kagome, was _dead_.

Unlike his soft-hearted grandson, Dracula had never once seen his son's bloodtears. Not even when he was still a bae suckling on his mother's breasts. The sight unnerved him.

There were no sounds from Adrian, but his shaking shoulders, naked of any fabric but blood from murderous mortals, gave away his broken heart. Dracula wasn't sure what to do—he only knew how to comfort his wife, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson, all different in their needs, Adrian never needed any emotional attention from him. Sometimes from his mother, in childhood, but even then he never reveals his entire heart and worries.

It was always his wife he turned to, his heart completely exposed to no one else but her.

Just like his father, who opened his heart to very few.

So, Dracula gave him more time, and surveyed the punishments his son surely gave out to these horrible creatures. The town, as a crude one would say, was literally painted red, with blood and organs. There was not a single sound of gasping life in miles.

Indeed, his son did a very thorough job that Dracula felt slight disappointment he didn't get to gain his vengeance.

Where was his Lisa? Dracula dimly realized. Without thinking he stepped past his son, nuzzling into his grandson's hair, a color inherited from Kagome's night-dark hair, to search for _something_ he could bury in a coffin.

His wife and his daughter-in-law deserved nothing less than most honorable remembrance.

Perhaps, a lonely thought came, they could find a way to return them to life and be a family again.

It wasn't impossible after all, Dracula knew this—Lisa made him realize he could reach for stars if he so much wanted to. His heart numbed with shock still, Dracula registered his son's call just at the last beat of his words.

"She was still alive when I arrived, Father." Adrian shuddered, but hadn't risen his head to meet his father's eyes burning with rims of tears he refused to let spill, "She was rasping still in my arms." He buried himself deeper into Kagome's neck and nuzzled against her so-perfect skin, "These… _creatures_ insulted her in _my_ presence. The devil's _whore_!" He hissed at the memory still so bright in his mind from that beak-nosed bastard's hollering.

Adrian quietened, just for several seconds, before he rose his head at lasts and met his sire's eyes, dried blood tears stark against his white skin, "I remembered not even taking pleasures into taking lives for their penances." He flushed Kagome's body closer and closed his eyes, "She was begging me…but I did not hear her pleas."

Slumping onto the ground uncaring of puddles of blood steeping into his trousers Adrian, with such cares, his formerly absent jacket was tugged over the slender frame to hide all of her from this cruel world. He took his time, caressing Kagome's peaceful face with a bloodied hand, before he folded his wife's body into his arms. With impressive grace, he rose to his feet and glided to his father, " What should _we_ do? …What should _I_ do?"

Dracula hadn't any idea, but he wanted his vengeance just the same, "Who was responsible for our loves' death, son?"

Thinning his lips Adrian tilted his head at the once-standing proud church. "That." He hadn't dared to foul his tongue with the name of such a terrible sect of rotting souls.

"…We grieve." Dracula decided, resuming his search for whatever that remained of his wife, "When we are ready, we seek vengeance." He petted Gabriel's head, when he heard of the boy's whimpers in his sleep.

Adrian shook his head, his golden hair matted with red, "…I cannot say I want the same, Father," he pressed a kiss on Kagome's frayed forehead, "the only thing I wanted is to have the mother of my child back, to feel the warmth of my beloved again."

"With wills, as Kagome would say, there are ways." Dracula closed into the firepit and grimaced at what looked like a log of charcoal—his wife's burnt form, still with bones. His son must have wiped out the blazes just in time before Lisa's body would have completely dissolved. Dracula slid close his eyes, remembering more of his dear daughter, "We should consider Shikon no Tama."

Jaws clinking close Adrian apologized to Kagome in his mind.

He'd pay all prices just to hold her again, in his arms.

"Very well," Adrian sighed, "it is a start."

He'd be damned to submit to the death itself, to let it keep his Kagome away from him.

* * *

edited as of 12.20.17, to the best of my ability


	3. 2: blessed are the dead

**author's note** : angst incoming! duck!

 **warnings** : implied deaths

 **e** **dited by** : MariDark, previous chapters are in process of being edited

 **2** :  
blessed are the dead

" _I will pay any price to have her back."_

Gabriel never forgot his father's determination, his cold declaration. Although his father hadn't agreed with grandfather's decision to destroy humanity, he was still quite willing to kill. Kill was hardly something his dear mother would've agreed with.

" _Violence is never a solution."_ His mother told him once, after his terrible temper tantrum and mauling of a large prey until there was nothing left for even a scrap to eat—something that was the norm for his age, for what he was. No one was upset with him, it was just another lesson in his growing up.

But, Gabriel thought, he might have grown up a little too much within a year of the tragic passing of his mother and grandmother. He no longer felt like a child, but rather a sad adult still in a child's body. He rarely spent time with his father and grandfather, as they were lost in their grieving. Gabriel spent his time reading in the vast library instead, consuming a book after a book. _Countless_ of books.

Often, in fictional love stories he'd be reading, he would re-imagine two characters as his parents—it was his way of keeping them alive in his mind. Since his birth, his mother and father had always been in love with each other, love was so warm in their eyes they might as well be suns. Yes, Gabriel shot his father a sad gaze, his father was dead—his heart had died along with his mother.

Although Gabriel kept books as his company, neither his father or grandfather forgot about him. They'd come and check on him in random intervals, passing along small questions, often like what he had learned in recent hours (everything and nothing), how he was (he wasn't okay but he always lied through his teeth), and so on. They rarely stayed long though.

Gabriel was still glad to see small love in their eyes, only reserved for him. They weren't as bright as they used to be towards their respective dearest partner, but it was something. Love made his inhuman father and grandfather more human to him.

Just a little more human than what they were.

Although he wasn't born a human like his beloved mother, her magic, holy magic, kept his father's blood rich in his veins. No one was sure how it was possible considering his mother was as human as a human could be, but they didn't care. They were happy he was healthy and strong—he had the best of both worlds.

But now, Gabriel tore away his sight from his huddling father probing through a thick book of a language he couldn't yet read, they no longer felt human to him.

He hated it.

Neither his mother or grandmother would want this. They wouldn't wish them to cast deaths upon countless innocents all because of what they were and for being in wrong place in the wrong time. Yet, death was their pending fates, for what his father and grandfather intended to do.

And Gabriel could do nothing about it.

How could he? He was still small, defenseless, and equipped with nothing but his books and his smarts. There was no one else for him to go. Neither his mother or grandmother had any family left that bore any warm feeling for them and their latest addition to their little family.

He loved his sires still.

Fluttering his gold eyes close, Gabriel shuddered at hundreds of cries of innocent women screaming from floors below like a disgusting cacophonic symphony. Dashing behind a tall shelf he hurried to wipe away his red tears before his sires could scent it. He wanted nothing to do with them this hour.

If not weeks.

"I'm so sorry, mother." Gabriel breathed so quietly into the air he was hardly sure he even said his words at all, "I know you didn't want this. I know you'd be upset…just," his back shot straight and stumped down the want to shiver, "please…don't hurt father any more than he is now." He pleaded, not sure at all if his mother's spirit could hear him.

He was scared of what his father would do, should this horrible experiment succeeded and have him be rejected.

* * *

616* virgin women, bearing still with virgin blood.

A harder task than one may expect—or perhaps expected given the corrupted state of the living world. Adrian, _Alucard_ as he had taken upon to call himself as his name served him a horrible reminder of how sweet it sounded from his love's tongue, needed women that met certain requirements.

Pure from being untouched and their blood still unused.

The spread corruption hardly allowed women to go without being tainted in any form. Sex and demon sacrifices were unfortunate commonplaces. His father had been happy to help, sending out his most trusted vassals to gather women. They wouldn't touch and corrupt these precious sacrifices. Of course, they still had to be taken care of, their minds washed of the horror they found in their hearts or risked them taking the coward's way out.

Incubuses were quite useful in that aspect, keeping these women happy until they were able to reach the amount they needed.

Of course, they had to be threatened disembowelment and certain types of permanent sufferings should they attempt stealing their pureness. Dracula knew how to keep fear deep in his minions. As he said before, there were far worse things than death.

Alucard should know—life without his darling love was that. It was an eternal torment, to not have her in his arms. To remember her burned body forever in his mind eye.

Tracing his hands over the sleek dome of glass, he thumped his forehead against it and found himself gazing upon his slumbering wife's face. So beautiful even in her death, even with the distortions of the green fluid meant to reserve and to heal her body, he found it unbelievable still that Kagome ever died. He touched the glass, tracing her face, and sighed, "Soon, love, soon. Forgive me, I know you'll hate me, but I can't live without you."

He pressed his lips into a kiss on the glass that separated his love from his touches. Slowly, reluctantly, he parted and sighed once more, "I must get back to my work. I'll have you in my arms, very soon." With one final caress on the dome, he turned back to the immense book his father had found.

The Shikon no Tama needed to be the final resort. Kagome deserved that honor, and Alucard didn't fancy the idea of having her to slave over again to keep the corruption within from ever spreading. The book, so ancient its title wore off from the cover, would be his final attempt before he'd use the cursed jewel.

The number of attempts he had made to revive his love was unimaginable.

Of course, this one horrible spell neither Alucard or Dracula could afford to test on a lucky soul to revive. 616 women wholly virgins weren't easy to come by and they weren't that patient to wait some 15-odd years to have the world to breed more. Nothing else worked in the way they'd rather have the results to go.

Several times, their revival tests came back as monsters they killed with ease.

Most of the times though, nothing happened. Their dead test subjects stayed dead. Alucard was praying this spell wouldn't return his love as a monster.

Or rather the monster who would turn his Kagome ugly in both outside and inside, unrecognizable in all aspects.

Hell, she becoming like him, he wouldn't mind. It would be difficult to corrupt her soul into something terrible—he'd seen how many had tried to corrupt her and her purity through different means, and she still came out stronger and her spirit more addicting. Indeed, he simply wanted his Kagome to be Kagome.

If this worked…his father would be sure to follow this ugly recipe and resume his collection of 616 more unfortunate women. His father managed to succeed recovering and righting his mother's body into her previous glory. Now, her body slumbered away from Alucard's sight.

He didn't need another reminder of his losses. His wife was horrible enough. His father agreed, rarely sparing a sight onto Kagome himself in turn.

At another screech of a wailing woman from a floor below, Alucard ignored another twinge of guilt. These women seemed to realize their impending demise and his father's fools were constantly trying to blank their minds. A few of them would always end up waking up though, triggering an onslaught of horror all over again, into a vicious cycle.

It was alright though—Alucard intended to put the final end to their terror and put them at rest, for good. That end was quickly approaching. With a quick dart of his bright eyes, he saw the long hand of a large grandfather clock face ticking closer to midnight. Alucard didn't need to see through a nearby window to know that the full moon would be rising tall above his father's castle that night.

* * *

Alucard had an idea where his son was. Gabriel's blood tears were strong and stung his nose. Alucard wasn't blind to see his son's contempt for his foul deeds—but he wanted his mother back too. It seemed to be a concept Gabriel had been struggling with, his heart torn and confused.

He felt sorry for his son, felt guilt for putting Gabriel through this disaster, but Alucard couldn't sleep since Kagome's nightmarish passing. He could barely function, losing all desire to even feed. He hadn't needed to feed on anything else when his Kagome still breathed. Several sips from her neck had been enough for him, ending his craving for human consumption. Large preys were all he needed as actual substances.

Now, his father had been force-feeding him unlucky humans monthly, just so he wouldn't wilt away and leave his father sonless and his child fatherless. His hunger would always drive him to empty these poor bastards no matter his resistance. These mortals tasted foul to him, absolutely nothing like his sweet love, but they sated him.

The idea of his wife breathing again in his arms, in his bed, was the only thing that would drive him forward.

He shot a glance at his silent father, brooding always in his black cloak. Alucard hadn't any idea how Dracula was able to function at all, but needs of gaining vengeance were his apparent driving force. While he was seeking a way to return his Kagome into the land of the living, his father had been working on something else. Something Alucard would rather not worry himself about.

He shook his head of swirling thoughts, his hand clenching on a lever that would surely take those poor women from the world of the living. Alucard's ears waited for that clang he both dreaded and awaited eagerly for. He caught sniffles in intervals of his wait and, again, he debated on whether if he should make a request to remove his son from the dungeon.

"You," Alucard called out to a lingering she-beast—one of Dracula's favorite servants for some ungodly reason, "can you please remo—"

 _Clang clang clang!_

He was startled, but he hurried. He clenched his jaws and jagged the lever toward his body with such a jerk that Alucard thought he might've tore his shoulder. The blaring of life escaping from these ill-fated mortals' throats was deafening. So deafening Alucard barely recognized his father's minions' howls and screeches, their claws grasping over their ears.

Dracula didn't flinch and neither did Alucard.

They did look back at the familiar cry of their dear boy. After a brief check both turned back to a great clear tube hanging from the ceiling. Crisscrosses of running tubes twisted on the aged cobblestone walls were flashing red.

The red dashed to the great tube, quickly filling it to the brim.

"Go." Dracula barked at his minions as soon as the silence returned. They giggled and circled the far-off lever. The tube lowered to the great hole below, sloshing the blood of countless virgins. "Son." He turned to Alucard, who vanished to an elaborate, gold-lined coffin on the opposite side.

A white-wrapped body appeared in his arms and Alucard shuddered at the feather-light weight. He glanced beyond his father's shoulders, worried for Gabriel. Dracula shook his head, "Boy, go! Time is of the essence!"

Despite his rough voice, Dracula trekked back to the hiding Gabriel, to perhaps shield him from the sight of his mother's body being bathed in blood.

Alucard pressed a kiss onto the blanket-covered forehead, stopping before the hole in the floor. The tube finally clicked in, the rim crackling against the stone, producing a horrid sound. It was time.

He dropped to his knee, and with tender care, the body slipped into the pool of blood without any splashes. Alucard had to claw himself into the stones, to keep himself from going in after his wife, when a fog of white and black faded into dense red and sunk to the bottom of the glass. There was nothing else to do but to wait.

And wait he did.

"The spell didn't work." Dracula hissed, when an hour passed. He ignored the tiny clenching on his trouser, his cape hiding his grandson from his son's view.

Alucard's eyes tinged red, upset. He couldn't reply back, his throat too full of his rage to be allowed to speak. The stones bore two holes, jagged with claw-marks, a sure evidence of his wants to destroy.

Dracula vacated his followers from the room, sensing their increasing jeers. It took much for him not to murder them all. Good helps were such a hard find these days.

Though, perhaps he'd throw one or two toward Alucard's way, to be used as his targets. Alucard would need to pent out his disappointment and anger. Dracula thought he'd do the same as well.

His red eyes drifted to the blackening pool of blood, and found himself wanting to slump his shoulders like a broken man he was inside. He couldn't afford to break before his son and precious grandson—they needed him strong. Dracula bit back a grit of growl, "We should return her body back to the pod."

Alucard, still speechless, intended to launch himself in and fish up his wife from the pit. She'd need to be bathe, he thought, and be rid of any taint within her body. As soon as he threw his jacket off his back, the surface of the virgin blood bubbled.

Stiffening along side with his father and son, they watched as the bubbles increased in quantity. Their eyes grew wide, in disbelief, as the blood seemed to turn totally black within a single blink. Something, or _someone_ , broke from the surface and slammed down their clawed hands onto the ground.

Drenched in dense blood she choked and gagged and coughed for air, crawling her way out from the pool and spitting out blood from her lungs.

Although it wasn't easy to tell who it was from the first glance they knew who she was: Kagome. Dracula clenched onto the whimpering Gabriel's shoulder, to allow Alucard his desired reunion with his wife, and watched with morbid interest. With his sharp eyes he watched Alucard bound over to the other side, grasping onto her small shoulders.

Quickly, she slapped them away, her eyes heated with rage, " _What have you done to me!?"_

* * *

*616 was supposedly the true number of the beast, not the triple 6, but who knows. i'm being superstitious here though, being silly.


	4. 3: reap what you sow

**author's note** : derp herp

 **w** **arnings** : none, unless you count angst. not yet beta'd.

 **3** :  
reap what you sow

" _How dare you!?"_

" _Forgive me, love, but I couldn't live without you!"_

" _By turning me into a walking dead, Adrian!? …Just what did you do to me…?"_

His father had been left a lonely man, but he seemed to keep hope. Gabriel kept hope too. His mother was alive, or perhaps walking in the living world would be a better fit for what she became. Neither living or dead, his mother was like both of his sires though changed little inwardly.

Save for her ability to forgive.

" _Stay away from me! I do not want to see your face!"_

" _My love, plea—!"_

 _THUD! goes the door right in his father's face._

 _There'd always be shallow claw marks into the wooden surface._

She couldn't forgive his father for reviving her, or perhaps that she was no longer human. Perhaps both, Gabriel wasn't sure. So upset was she that his mother up and left the castle on her own accord, for her desired isolation. Her mother heart though rendered her unable to leave her son motherless, so she often sends him letters.

" _Gabriel, my dear son, please forgive me, but I cannot stay here and be reminded of your father's deeds."_

" _Mother…"_

" _Please don't cry. When I am ready, I will face your father, but until then I cannot stay."_

" _When will you be ready, mother?"_

"… _I don't know, little love, I don't know. Could be weeks, months, years. I am sorry, my little love, but I must go. I will send letters to you."_

Sometimes with directions of where she currently was, provided Gabriel made strict promises not to tell his father and grandfather. Her new and old familiars had ensured he wouldn't tell a soul. Every other month he went with her for adventures and life lessons from outside the castle that had been his home for a year.

It was eye-opening journey…something he thought should be shared with his father also.

Being young as he was, with a kind, scholar heart, he never adventured with his mother for long. His mother would send him back to the castle, or wherever his father was, on the back of one of her familiars. Returning to his father was always his least favorite part.

The first time he returned, he saw his father's heart being crushed in his eyes.

"… _She didn't come with you."_

" _I…I am sorry, father."_

"… _It's alright, son." Gabriel thought he heard his usually-cool father's voice cracking._

His father hoped for his mother to return with him.

And she never did.

His father was only aware of his journey through a short, quipped letter his mother send him, to provide assurance Gabriel would be safe in her hands…he'd received shortly after he left, to avoid being followed. His mother's avoidance never did stop his father from trying though.

" _You blasted fae, let me see her!"_

 _The fae giggled in response, before she vanished with Gabriel and left behind multiple illusions of herself._

His mother was clever, having instructed her familiars to know what and how to avoid his attempts. It was almost cruel on her part, but Gabriel knew it hurt her to do so too. He'd gain wise not to beg her to return him and not to mention his sires aside from some vague commentaries on recent events.

She'd shut down and becomes a poor company when he did.

" _Father misses you, mother…"_

"…"

"… _Mother?" She never replied, her face glued on the dirt road ahead of them and tightened her grips on the rein of her fae-horse. Gabriel felt her body stiffened as a board._

 _He didn't say anything else after that._

It became some sort of strange routine they had, something Gabriel learned to live with. To accept.

Until his grandfather released Hell upon the earth.

His father was severely injured from his resistance, seeded from his mother's disgusts at his recent deeds, and had fled with Gabriel in tow. What spared them from being forced back into Dracula's castle was one of his mother's brave familiars, ferrying them away from Dracula's reaches.

(He hadn't a heart to keep calling Dracula his grandfather, for all that he did.)

Gabriel came to realize that that familiar was meant to be his, when it didn't take him back to his mother like he expected.

" _Take us to Mother, please! I need to see if she's okay!"_

 _The bat-creature eyed them, catching Gabriel's father's hopeful grimace. It grunted and turned itself around onto the wooden floor. It fell into a nap and ignored the boy's upset._

He hadn't seen his mother in few years since. He wasn't sure exactly why, but felt it was because their location was never fixed. Having vacated from Dracula's castle he and his father essentially became wanderers. They hardly stayed long, as hunters and demons populated from the result of Dracula's deeds against humanity.

One or two times a year a letter would successfully find it way into his grasp, letting him his mother was still alive. Gabriel didn't keep those letters—they gave his father hope and he hadn't any heart to refuse him of that hope. His father still longed for his mother, having refused any and all interested female's advances.

" _Ohhh, you're so handsome…care to warm a bed with me tonight?"_

" _No, leave me be."_

He ever only had eyes for his mother.

Gabriel prayed his mother hadn't moved on from his father either, but it was hard to say.

He still didn't know if she hated his father.

Slumping against the door frame of the entrance and kicked the dirt Gabriel sighed at his brooding thoughts. He missed his mother horribly.

He missed her cooking.

He missed the gentle scent of her perfume.

He missed her optimism.

He missed her twinkling eyes.

Most of all, he missed his father's half-smiles.

"Father," Gabriel straightened, folding his book and tucked it in his armpit, "I think I'll hunt tonight. Any particular meat you'd like?" He craned his head toward the darkest corner of the tiny, downtrodden cabin.

He didn't remember when was the last time his father had braved the sunshine since before his mother's initial death.

His father shifted, as if he had just been woken, and sighed, "If there's any local, bear. If not, a buck will sufficient." Small seams of light slipped through a covered window and hit his golden hair.

Gabriel grimaced. His father hadn't bother much with his appearance. Although he wasn't able to grow facial hair, his father looked rather haggard in the strangest way possible.

He thought his father was looking too much like Dracula, a blond version of him at least. He even had donned clothing like what Dracula had worn. His father didn't look as sleek and sharp he remembered him growing up with his mother at his side. He simply didn't look _young_.

Being old wasn't something vampires were capable of.

Even _ugly_ no vampire Gabriel ever encountered ever looked _old_.

"Alright, father, I'll see what I can find." Gabriel slumped and shot his father one last look, "Afterward, we should find a lowlife for you to feed on. You are wasting away again, father."

His father didn't say a word.

With another sigh, Gabriel slipped away and thudded the flimsy door close to shield his father from the light. Quietly he heard paper crackling open and grimaced with heartache. At each departure Gabriel made from his side his father would read his mother's letters, over and over.

He hurried away, wanting to leave behind those depressing thoughts.

At the shade of the first tree he passed under, he briefly considered summoning his bat familiar. He shook his head, he didn't need extra protection. His father had trained him well.

So, he hunted.

Gabriel regretted not summoning his bat familiar, staring down a needle nose of the arrow perching on a crossbow. Although he could fight quite well, he struggled avoiding fast projections, his sudden reflex still lacking. The dead bear on his back gave it away that he wasn't a mere human and had distracted him from sensing prowling hunters.

And bear meat wasn't a common delicacy around in these parts.

"Pretty boy," the bald hunter slurred, a yellowed, gap-toothed grin making him uglier than it intended to be, "you a blood-sucker? Ye too pretty to be a human. Ya yellowed eyed too!" He crackled with his throng of a group at his back. He pressed the pointy edge of his arrow into his face, readied to be shoot right into his skull.

Gritting his teeth Gabriel cursed. He doubted he'd heal well with an arrow cutting through his brain. He wouldn't know, but he didn't dare to press his luck. Fashioning a glare he said nothing, frozen in his position.

There was no way he could survive this encounter, unless that dumb fool makes a mistake.

"Tch heh!" One hunter barked, "Let's turn him into ashes! Put him out of his suffering, ya?"

The crossbow user crackled with mad glee and pulled his trigger finger.

Gabriel clasped his eyes shut, apologies already being uttered in his mind to his father for leaving him alone.

There were screaming and it wasn't his own, with a strange sound.

He snapped his eyes open and saw the crossbow user was pinned to a tree, with an arrow through his head. His body was swaying, his feet several inches above the ground. Whose arrow…?

The smog of darkness took form at their feet, snapping the arrow meant for Gabriel into pieces.

Gabriel stumbled backward and fell onto the hard ground, his dinner thumping hard from his accidental release from his back. He could feel the smoke swirling from his hands, harmlessly. A blur hopped into the front of him, hissing like a snake, "You _best_ stay away from my son, filth!"

He lost his breath then, at the long mane colored like night sky floated down on her back with her heavy mantle. He'd recognize that silky hair anywhere for he never saw any other hair so well-groomed and gleamed like a raven's feathers like his mother. Gabriel sputtered, "M-mother…?"

As soon as he said it one hunter swung a sword at her, spitting out poor insults. A mistake he wouldn't live to remedy. He turned into bones, from the darkness draining his lifeblood and collapsed into ashes. Just like he promised Gabriel he'd become, only to have it thrown back into his face.

The rest lost their heads and fell into heaps over each other.

His mother relaxed her defensive position and with a flick of her wrist, the darkness vanished. She sighed and bowed somewhat into herself, muttering, "Well, I don't need to worry about feeding myself tonight." Without much prompting she swirled to the wide-eyed Gabriel, her face bright, "My son! It is _so_ good to see you!"

She jerked onto his wrist and jerked him upward onto his feet. Stumbling from her sudden force Gabriel sputtered when he found his face being cupped and turned to his mother's sad expression, "Oh…" She caressed his cool skin, "you've grown so tall, so _handsome_ , my dear Gabriel. I've missed much, haven't I?"

Gabriel did the only thing he could think to do.

He grabbed her small body and drew her into a tight hug, "Mother…!" Gabriel started to sob, " _Mother_!" He dimly realized just how much taller he became, towering over his tiny mother.

With a wet laugh, she hugged him back, minding not his blood tears, "Oh, you sweet hearted boy of mine." Her voice was as sad as her expression, "I haven't stopped looking for you. Naes and my other familiars couldn't find you." Choking a laugh she couldn't stop her own blood tears from shedding, "I must've written so many letters, hoping against hope they'd find their ways to you."

She couldn't find him.

That was why.

Gabriel slumped against her small shoulders, remembering his father, "…do you still hate my father still?"

Will she go silent again?

She sighed—a difference from last he saw his mother, "No, I could never hate your father." She pushed him back, so she could see his tear-stained face, "I was so angry with him. How was I supposed to live without breathing? Feeding on living beings?" Her voice was so soft he could hardly hear her. "I needed time to gather myself, to be myself again, in this…skin." There was a slight contempt in her tone, that sounded like it was at herself.

His mother reached up and smeared away his incoming tears, "…I've been ready for several years now, but since then I couldn't find you. Neither could I your father."

Gabriel strangled a whimper, "So _Grandfather_ …" he spat like poison.

"Shush, shush, let us not speak of a dead man, little love." His mother interrupted. She seemed heavier at the thought of Dracula meeting his end at the hands of a Belmont, a sorceress, and his father. Rumors spread and they spread far. So, she knew.

It was obvious to Gabriel.

Nodding Gabriel glanced into the direction where his father awaited, and frowned, "So what will you do, mother?"

She glanced at the bear at his feet and gave a tiny laugh, "I'll wait here for your father. As much as I love to speak with my dear son again, I know my little love would like it if I try with his father again."

Gabriel found his throat drying with hope and nodded, "…I'll send father your way."

He tugged the heavy bear (it felt so much lighter now) onto his back. With a gentle prodding Gabriel found his mother pressing a kiss onto his forehead, like she used to do with him as a wee child, "Please do be safe. Do go ahead and make a meal out of your prey. I don't think your father and I will be back for a while yet."

At his dubious expression his mother shook her head, "No, no, it's much too soon for _that_ , little love." With a warm look she crossed her arms and gave away a long sigh, "We have _much_ to discuss."

Gabriel couldn't help but to nod eagerly, "Yes, of course, I'll send him your way. Do forgive him for his," he furrowed his brows, "… _forwardness_." He almost wanted to say to take heeds of his appearance, but perhaps that was better left for his mother to discover.

And to hopefully righted.

His mother gave him one last kiss, on his cheek, and smiled that smile he longed to see again, "Be off with you. I'll see you soon."

With lighter heart Gabriel kissed her crown, and vanished from where he stood.


	5. 4: to be forgiven

**author's note** : we're almost at the end! or at the end _here_ , as i'm unhappy with the following chapter. as of october 30th of 2018, it's being reworked. you can find the old version elsewhere for the time being however. but honestly, what was i thinking... that's just poor writing on my part. sorry folks!

edit 2: wtf I didn't update this, just editing. Wtf ffn, thatst just poor design.

 **w** **arnings** : none, unless you count angst

 **4** :

to be forgiven

Alucard was becoming worried for his son.

He wasn't supposed to be gone for this long. With a deep frown he folded his letters still with a small hint of his love's perfume, and tucked them away within his coat. With a twist of his feet he closed to the door, grimacing at the sun still not fading its light yet. He hadn't any courage to spend time outside, in the light—the sunlight would only serve as painful reminders of the one who held his heart.

Gabriel was the only reason he kept on living—he was, although painful, his reminder to keep hope. His son was his and Kagome's impossible product of love. Being a hybrid between a vampire and a human he had little hope to have his own child, but Gabriel happened, born a _dhampyr*_ just like his sire.

It was something about his love that made it possible for him to be a father. A fatherhood he thought to be an impossible dream. He hadn't thought he could love Kagome anymore than he did then, but it was indeed possible. His love for her borderline into obsessive.

She and their son were his entire life.

Until Kagome died in his arms, begging to put his wrath to peace.

He could only think of her.

Even now he still sees Kagome through their beloved son. It hurts to look at Gabriel's face, sometimes. Although he felt like he was a terrible father, he tried. He made sure Gabriel would be clothed, fed, and trained to defend himself.

There had been a time where Gabriel had been left to fret for himself with familiars his company, when Alucard had to put an end to Dracula's insanity daring not bringing his then-small son into the frays. With the Belmont and Speaker's assistance, he was able to put both of his parents' souls to rest—though perhaps temporary. It was hard to say with an immortal soul.

Afterward, he tried to be a father, alone and waiting for Kagome to return.

That was all he could do, being a father and wait.

Worries about his son's absences were a daily thing. But, this wasn't Gabriel's norms. With another grimace at the sun-lit grasses, Alucard hadn't taken a step outside the cabin, when Gabriel dashed from the greenery, with a massive predator on his back, "Son." There was a slight reprimand in his one word.

Gabriel disregarded his father's subtle displeasure, his blood-streaked face cheery, "Father!"

At this Alucard blinked—Gabriel looked _happy_ for a change, being a subtle quiet scholar he was. And why had he shed his tears? He raised his chin when Gabriel grasped onto his garb and gave a light tug, "Father, Mother is waiting for you!"

Alucard's eyes were wide with his son's declaration. There was no reason to disbelieve Gabriel, and with a slight shaky breath, "Where?"

Hope hurts, biting his cold heart inside his body, but he thought it was a good kind of pain.

He was gone. He dashed through thesunlight, when Gabriel raised a finger into the direction he came from. Alucard missed Gabriel's wet laugh.

* * *

Tugging the hood closer to her eyes, Kagome settled under a great shade. The sun was starting to go down, much to her relief. She could think better, without the sunlight burning her sensitive porcelain skin.

She slid close her eyes against the rough bark of a tree and sighed. For a short while, Kagome did hate Adrian—or felt she did. She never entertained ideas of hurting him more than how she was hurting. It was an ugly feeling, one she'd rather not feel again toward someone who she loved the most.

It was hard sleeping feeling so cold. Her body was like a walking icicle, so numbed. She was used to sleeping to the sounds of her own breathing, her own heart beating in her veins—but now she could hear nothing of herself but could hear literally everything else within miles. Kagome hadn't mind Adrian's statue-like body but never imagined her body would one day like his.

She never wanted to be a vampire.

Adrian knew this, accepted this.

Or she thought he did.

He wasn't able to accept her mortality, at all.

Kagome decided not to think about her decade-long turmoils that followed her revival and thinned her lips. Her son deserved her willingness to face his father again. She knew how much he wanted her to make peace with Adrian's atrocious deeds.

He sacrificed countless women just for her—something she was so torn about. Was he really that desperate? It was a hard thought to hold, and she doubted she'd ever figure out how she felt. Making peace was the only thing she could possibly do, with her tender heart toward Adrian.

Something familiar was coming her way, and it was coming fast.

She backed away from the tree and braced herself, to face Adrian Tepes.

Her face turned monotonous when large hands grappled her waist, "My love." His warm tone she wanted to sigh at. Even after a decade Adrian still kept that warmth that would have her heart shiver in delight.

Which, her unbeating heart did.

She didn't fight the embrace but she didn't return the hug either. Kagome found herself being buried in his arms and heavy clothing. It was both comfortable and uncomfortable.

Kagome opened her eyes. Adrian didn't care for heavy clothes. With a push she turned to look at him, taking several steps back.

She recoiled in shock, "Dra—?" She shook her head, jerking herself away from Adrian's hold, "Good lord, Adrian…" For a brief moment, she thought Dracula must have dyed his hair blond and shaved his goatee off.

It was cute to see Adrian becoming self-conscious, tugging on his tall collar of his cloak. He tried to be subtle, but Kagome saw him just the same. "…I—" He winced.

"You looked rather…" Kagome frowned, interrupting his apology, " _not_ Adrian."

Adrian flinched, although he fought himself not to crumble at the sound of his true name once more from his love's lips, "…I see." He fisted his hands to himself. His body sang its gratitude for feeling his wife's little body again.

Shaking her head Kagome kept her distance—there was still too much old pain lingering for them to bury for her to willingly take his affections again, but…he certainly looked like he needed _something_. "We have much to talk about." She didn't miss his grimace, but he nodded just the same.

"That we do." Adrian agreed, his tone weary.

Cocking her head at him she hummed. It'd be a start. She gestured toward herself, "Come here."

He wasn't sure of her intentions, half-expecting to suffer a slap (or a few), but he'd pay any penance to have her forgiveness. To have her at his side again, to be his better half.

"I'm not going to slap you." Kagome sighed, startling Adrian out from his brief hesitance. She shot him a plain glance, "No, I can't read your mind. That is not one of my new found talents." Her chuckle was a dry one, but honest.

Adrian closed the distance. He blinked at his love's rising arms and at her following words, "Here." Kagome looked expectant, "You looked like you hadn't had a hug in years."

He hadn't, all the weight he felt at his back seemed to have fallen off at her willingness. He pulled her tiny body into his hold and held onto her with every inch of his love he felt for her. Her scent. Her every crook and cranny of her body. Her hair he'd bury his nose in. He missed it all.

Unbothered by Kagome's feeble attempt to return his embrace he barely heard her sigh, feeling it through her body, "I am still upset, Adrian."

"I know. I _know_." Adrian shuddered. He had to mind his claws from tearing into her mantle, "I will kneel and grovel before your feet, begging for your forgiveness." He shifted to do such.

Kagome stopped him, a hand darting to his shoulder and shook her head, "No needs for that. You've been punished enough as is."

"Then what must I do to gain your love again? Your forgiveness?" Adrian clawed into his wrists, unwilling to separate himself from Kagome.

At that she laughed, with a sad tinge in her voice, "I've always loved you, Adrian. That never changed. As for forgiveness…" Kagome slumped, her blue eyes gazing into his gold, "that is in the progress, Adrian."

He hadn't realized he was streaking red from his eyes at what he heard from Kagome—she never stopped loving him. "I—I _love_ you." It was all Adrian could think to say.

"I know. Let's talk." Kagome parted, with a small smile and cupped his face, smearing away his tears.

* * *

 _D_ _hampyr*_ —a hybrid borne between vampire and human, so literally a halfling, similar to _hanyō_. They _could_ be classified as _hanyō_ , but I couldn't say it would be accurate because vampires are of western mythologies while _yōkai_ is a Japanese term and is actually a catch-all _umbrella_ _term_ for extraordinary beings split into four categories; _kami_ /gods, folk heroes/transformed humans, demons/oni [actually always evil, iirc], and spirits [can be good, neutral, or evil].

In short, characters like Sesshoumaru would be best classified as a _dog spirit_ , not a _dog demon_ , because Sesshoumaru isn't an evil character—he's neutral, at best. _Yōkai_ as a term got very muddled over the years when anime became more popular outside Japan and fanworks populated. Terms like that started to lose its intended meanings.

Well, that's your fun fact of the day! Do with this information as you like.

Another thing to add, _dhampyr_ have multiple spellings; _dhampir_ , _dhampyre_ , and _dhamphir_. I just picked the current spelling because I liked the y.


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